Birding Blue Mtns - NEWS ARCHIVE p1

NEWS (May–June 2006)

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Banksias on Narrow Neck

OK, so they're not birds, but they are mighty important for birds and when flowering well are always an indication of potential bird activity, so I went out onto Narrow Neck early on 16 June and photographed the banksias to try and show you how glorious they are at the moment. As expected, there were lots of Red Wattlebirds, New Hollands and Yellow-faced Honeyeaters feeding in them. It was a nice bonus to see a Rockwarbler hopping around on the clifftop.

Big thanks are due to Cathy McBey for the loan of her digital camera.

Banksias on Narrow Neck peninsula, near Katoomba. Top, left to right: B. marginata; B. ericifolia, click to enlarge and you'll see the glint of the nectar so prized by honeyeaters; Heathland dominated by B. ericifolia. Bottom: B. marginata against a backdrop of eucalyptus and the blue of the yawning valley beyond. Photos CP.

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Interesting behaviour by the Australian Raven

The following note by Fiona Lumsden appeared in the Blue Mountains Bird Observers newsletter, June 2006 issue. The observation took place at Govett's Leap, Blackheath.

I was at the picnic area with a group from my work, watching two magpies tackling large chunks of Sao biscuits. Two ravens joined the group. I was interested to watch interactions between normally cocky magpies and the much larger ravens. No aggression was noted but when the ravens walked up to the magpies, the magpies quietly relinquished their Saos.

After a while one of the ravens began flying off with Sao chunks, then returning. A co-worker said she had seen a raven hiding a piece of Sao under a step. We had a look. I'd expected it might be tucked into a natural hole but no hole and we couldn't see the Sao at all.

My co-worker removed two small, flat (unsuspicious looking) clumps of dried grass at the base of the step and there was the Sao, cunningly hidden beneath – premumably to hide from competitors until return. It was really quite well done!

The ravens returned to the area as we moved off but we were unable to stay long enough to see if they retrieved the Sao. I know of other species that cache food for long-term storage but hadn't before seen the disguising of food for short-term hiding from others.

Since then, Fiona has observed this raven again caching food. She writes in an email today (26th June): "I was at Govetts Leap again last week with work.... the raven snappily shuffled 3 pieces of biscuit into its bill like a pack of cards and sauntered off to an area of pine bark 3 metres away..... quickly and deftly buried bickies under pine bark, back again, 3 more pieces of bickie, hopped up into a raised garden bed, pulled up a clump of grass and hid second package of goodies away. No other birds around but obviously thought better safe than sorry. Seems a good way of dealing with a temporary surplus of food."

And on the subject of corvids caching food, Fiona also sent the following article sourced from the June 2006 edition of Talking Birds, which I reproduce here as it's relevant to our Blackheath raven, and to bird intelligence in general. A fascinating read, thanks Fiona!

Click to enlarge
(will load in a new window, may take a few seconds).

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Winter banksias attracting many honeyeaters

12th June 2006

Banksia in snow. Photo by Cathy McBey.

Winter in the upper Blue Mountains means flowering banksias and various honeyeaters congregating in large numbers to feed on them. It also means lyrebirds displaying – their songs resounding through the valleys, frosty mornings, occasional snow, Rose Robins cheering up gardens, log fires, and the bright golden flowers of the Sunshine Wattle (Acacia terminalis).

Crescent Honeyeater. Drawing by Fiona Lumsden.

At the moment there are four species of banksia flowering on Shipley Plateau near Blackheath, including the beautiful Silver Banksia (B. marginata) and Heath Banksia (B. ericifolia) – and an abundance of honeyeaters. At one location ("Shipley Racetrack", not really a racetrack) on Saturday 10th June we saw 8 species of honeyeater – these were (roughly in order of abundance):

New Holland Honeyeater
Red Wattlebird
White-naped Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Eastern Spinebill
Crescent Honeyeater
Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
White-eared Honeyeater

The Yellow-tufted is quite unusual in the higher parts of the Blue Mountains and I've only ever seen them move into this area when there's an abundant supply of banksia nectar.

Near Katoomba, Narrow Neck plateau is also looking very promising with already many New Hollands, Yellow-faced, White-naped, Crescent Honeyeaters and Red Wattlebirds. Most of the Heath Banksias are not yet fully opened.

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Great birding in the Capertee Valley

12th June 2006

Lynda Hyde had a good trip to the valley on 5-6 June which she reported on Birding-Aus today. Here is an excerpt:

A pair of Speckled Warblers were foraging on the ground in front of us. White-plumed, White-naped, Brown-headed Honeyeaters, Red Wattlebird, Noisy Miner, Little and Musk Lorikeets were all feeding on flowering White Box along with 3 Regent Honeyeaters (on our second day we counted 8 Regents, one in particular was hawking insects, there was a lot of bees on the flower), Diamond Firetail, Double-barred Finch, Red-browed Finch, a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Hooded and Yellow Robins, Jacky Winter, White-browed Babbler, Superb Fairy-wren, Crested Pigeon, Common Bronzewing, Peaceful Dove, Eastern & Crimson Rosella. King & Red-rumped Parrots, Gang-gang, Welcome Swallow, Pied Currawong, Pied Butcherbird, Magpie, Magpie-lark & Willy Wagtail. Were all enjoying the long awaited rain..... The Valley has great birding at this time of the year, get in your car and do it.

The White Box (Eucalyptus albens) is always a fantastic resource when it flowers. Lynda and her husband Timothy own a property in the northern part of the valley. [read Lynda's full report]

Incidentally, the Emu mentioned in a paddock along Brown's Gap Road (Hartley Vale) is a farmer's pet.

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Honeyeater migration wrap-up

28th May 2006

White-naped Honeyeater. Photo Nevil Lazarus.

The autumn migration of Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters has now wound down with the last big numbers travelling through on 18th May, and flocks only sporadically going over since then.

This was the most impressive migration season I've ever witnessed in Katoomba. Altogether I estimate (conservatively) at least 220,000 honeyeaters flew over my little street this autumn! In contrast to here, Canberra observers reported generally disappointing numbers through the ACT this year.

With drought still having a big effect, it's not surprising that some of these little travellers appeared to be making their way eastwards towards the coast.

You'll find a detailed wrap-up of the season in today's final entry of the Migration Blog, including a look at what was seen by other observers.

GO TO THE MIGRATION BLOG | ABOUT THE HONEYEATER MIGRATION

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Some recent sightings

27th May 2006

Conditions are extremely dry in the Capertee Valley but good birds are still to be found. Here are a few noteworthy sightings from recent trips there and elsewhere. Robins feature prominently in this update.

Regent Honeyeaters are still at Crown Station Road in the Capertee Valley (as of 24th May), at a location where they have now been for nearly three months. They are currently feeding on lerps. The largest number seen was around 25 on 11th May. Anyone visiting the area please remember to report all Regent Honeyeater sightings to the National Recovery Co-ordinator, David Geering by email or phone Freecall 1800 621056.

Male Flame Robin. Photo Nevil Lazarus.

Painted Button-quail also present at Crown Station Road on 24th May.

Blue-billed Duck: a male at Lithgow Sewage Works on 11th May.

Flame Robin: small groups have been hanging out at Lake Wallace (Wallerawang) over the past three weeks, a sure sign of winter coming as they move out of their mountain breeding territories into open habitats.

Also a sign of autumn/winter, Rose Robins have been moving out of the rainforest gullies into gardens and other habitats.

Red-capped Robin: I've just received a report of a female seen at Mount York at Easter (15-16 April 2006). This is a species not often seen on the Blue Mountains and is more likely to visit during periods of drought. Its more usual range is in drier country further inland. (It is also a regular sight in the Capertee Valley, particularly in winter.) Thanks to Les Petö & Rosemary Brister for this sighting.

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'Valley mission is for the birds'

We have now been sent page 1 of the story by Madeleine Murray which appeared in the Lithgow Mercury, 16th May.

Click on the image to see a bigger version in a new window
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Article in Lithgow Mercury

An article by regular tree-planter, birder and journalist Madeleine Murray on the recent Capertee Valley tree-planting weekend appeared in the Lithgow Mercury, page 2, on 16th May.

Click on the image above to read the full article in a new window
(may take a few seconds to load).

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Black-necked Stork at Werrington, western Sydney

From Birding-Aus comes the report of a Black-necked Stork seen on 10th May 2006 at the Colonial Golf Course driving range, Werrington (near Penrith on the outskirts of western Sydney). A request has been made for any local or visiting birders to keep an eye out for it. For further information see the Birding-Aus archive. Any sightings of Black-necked Storks should be reported to Greg Clancy.

Record bird numbers slip towards extinction

From BirdLife International, 4th May 2006

BirdLife's annual evaluation of how the world's bird species are faring shows that the total number considered threatened with extinction is now 1,210. When combined with the number of Near Threatened species this gives a record total of 2,005 species in trouble — more than a fifth of the planet's 9,799 total species. [Read more...]

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Another successful tree planting weekend in the Capertee Valley

Regent Honeyeater, a number of which were seen by tree planting volunteers on 7th May in the Capertee Valley. Photo Nevil Lazarus.

9th May 2006

Last weekend, 6-7 May, saw more than 100 volunteers in the Capertee Valley to plant trees for the Regent Honeyeater. We worked on two properties, managing to get all 4000 trees and shrubs into the ground on Saturday with watering completed on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Both these sites were extending areas planted in 2005, creating very valuable future habitat in strategic sites for these and other woodland birds.

This brings the total number of trees planted in the valley since 2000 to around 74,000.

It was as usual a great weekend with volunteers enjoying the opportunity to get their hands dirty in a superbly scenic environment, much socialising at the Saturday night dinner (a delicious feast prepared by the Glen Alice community), and some fabulous birding on Sunday, when volunteers were rewarded with excellent views of the birds themselves.

A group of at least 14 Regent Honeyeaters was watched for over an hour as they fed on lerps and bathed in a farm dam, providing for some their first ever sight of these enigmatic birds. Other species seen at the same location included Turquoise Parrot, Hooded Robin, Striped Honeyeater and Common Bronzewing.

Tree planting weekends are held twice a year in the Capertee Valley, with the next one on 12-13 August 2006. Volunteers are always welcome. To register your interest or to find out more, contact David Geering by email or phone him on Freecall 1800 621056.

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The autumn honeyeater migration

5th May 2006

Yellow-faced Honeyeater. Photo Nevil Lazarus.

The autumn migration of Yellow-faced and White-naped Honeyeaters through the upper Blue Mountains has been nothing short of phenomenal this year. The numbers I've been getting travelling through Katoomba from around the middle of April have been the greatest I remember seeing in about 20 years of watching, and counting, these birds.

I've now posted a fact sheet on this amazing spectacle here. There was also an article in the Blue Mountains Gazette, 3rd May 2006 (page 21, "The hidden delight in our Mountains skies").

My home in Katoomba is on a major migration path for honeyeaters and a variety of other birds, so I've reproduced parts of my bird diary relating to this season's migration as a blog.

GO TO THE MIGRATION BLOG | ABOUT THE HONEYEATER MIGRATION

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